Planning distances advice
 

Hi, this is my first post on here.

Ive ridden a fair bit in a Europe but only South of The Netherlands down to Italy and Northern Spain and Portugal and everywhere in between.

I’ve been thinking about heading North to see friends in Sweden en route to The Nordkapp.

At probably 5000 miles, it’s going to be my biggest trip to date. Having watched Teapotones videos on YouTube I’m thinking of 300/400 mile days with rest days after every three trying to coincide them with visits to places I’d like to see.

I was wondering if there is an app or software you can plot a route and ask it to divide it by say 350 miles or maybe by say ten.

Thanks in advance and hope it’s not a stupid question.

I think the Via Michelin route planner could do that, set a marker every X kilometers or even find the nearest overnight spot.

Important thing to know about going to Nordkapp: riding in Finland and Sweden is fast and easy, riding in Norway is slow (and beautiful). If you start from the Netherlands, well, the easy way is to ride via Germany up to the tip of the Danish peninsula, ferry Fredrikshavn-Gothenburg, and then follow the E45 all the way to the top of Sweden. Easy, fast, safe, a little bit boring (but not as boring or annoying as the coastal main roads). It's a little over 1600 km, and yes you can actually do it in two very long riding-days.

From the Swedish-Finnish-Norwegian border, you can get to Honnigsvag (the village by Nordkapp) in a day. Arrive in time to check in at the Vandrerhjem (cheapest option if you don't want to camp), then ride up to Nordkapp early the next morning - if you get there before the ticket-checkers, the gates are open and you don't have to pay the entry fee. ;) Look around, take your pictures, by the same evening you can be in Tromso (a bit risky, maybe stay in Alta instead as a relaxing ride) or back in Sweden.

Riding in Norway is much slower than Finland or Norway. Roads are twisty, speed limits are low, more traffic is squeezed onto fewer main roads. But it's much more rewarding, too. Stay off E-roads there, stick to local Rv roads, especially anything marked as a Norwegian Tourist Road (google it).

Consider that Teapot One was intentionally going as fast as he could, his point was to go around the world quickly. If you are having a holiday and enjoying it, maybe plan on 300-400 km days max - this lets you start early, get to your next destination in the afternoon, find your accommodation and enjoy the scenery (or have time to stop at places and walk around during the day).

Route ideas
 

Thanks AnTyx for your kind advice, my initial thoughts are

Home to the Eurotunnel and Beveren nr Antwerp, maybe further
Beveren to the Fredrikshavn-Gothenburg with a mid way stop
West route to include
Hirtshal
Kristiansand
Jorpeland
Bergen
Nesvik
Geiranger
Trondheim
Narvik
Alta
Nordkapp
Return Leg
Rovaniemi
Lovanger
Helsingborg
Malmo
Germany
Holland
Belgium
France
Home

Probably a little under three weeks, stay a couple of nights in Helsinborg with friends. Mainly camping except when very wet and if I begin to smell.

I have pretty much everything in place except the time off work, Covid 19 travel restrictions, a new Camelback and a Drone. Ok the drone isn’t vital.

I’d be grateful for
must see sites along the way beyond Amsterdam, although I’ve seen Tivoli and Kronberg on previous trips to see our friends.

Best travel time between wet and midges or is that unavoidable?

Likely budget required.

Thanks in advance.

I was wondering if there is an app or software you can plot a route and ask it to divide it by say 350 miles or maybe by say ten.

Thanks in advance and hope it’s not a stupid question.

It's not a stupid question as such, but it might seem a little, shall we say, 'millennial'.

Have you thought about buying a paper MAP?

If you haven't been you might consider dropping in to Christiania in Copenhagen. I found it much more interesting than Tivoli and more laid back than Carlsberg. But then I am a superannuated old hippy so it was just like how I remember things. :rofl:

Half way up Jutland is Aarhus, a very cool historic/university town.

I'm not too familiar with the southwest corner of Norway, but I've heard good things about Stavanger. You may want to check off Trolltunga, it's one of the special sites for sure. I personally also have the Hopperstad Stave Church in my to-do list.

Geiranger is amazing. It's fine to take the fjord ferry into the village, then climb out on your bike via the Eagle's Nest and go on to Trollstigen. (I came in via land, on the back portion of Rv63, in the wet, stuck behind campers - not enjoyable!) From Trollstigen you're close to the Atlantic Road, which is also a bucket list thing. The town at the end of it is Kristiansund - was disappointing to me.

After Trondheim... Do NOT under any circumstance take the E6. It is a narrow two-lane road that carries all the heavy goods traffic for the upper two thirds of the country. Go west, hug the coast on Rv-XX roads, it won't be much slower and you will definitely be less annoyed.

Once you get to Bodö, take the fast ferry to Moskenes and take your time riding up through Lofoten. Absolutely worth it. Both east and west sides.

Skip Narvik, it is a nothing town, industrial fisheries and an iron ore export port. If you want a bigger town, Harstad is very pleasant. (Ride out to the Trondenes Church.)

Alternatively keep going as far as Andenes, catch the ferry to Senja and the next one, Botnhamn-Brensholmen. Then it's dry land all the way to Tromsö (also infinitely better than Narvik). Half way along the last island there is a great sled dog center - go play with the husky puppies!

On the way back through Finland, if you don't want to double back through Alta, then you can definitely go via Karasjok and Inari (big Sami cultural centers in both places). Rovaniemi is alright but nothing special in the summer. Instead I would consider hugging the Swedish-Finnish border (road is better on the Finnish side; stay at the Harriniva holiday camp and husky farm just south of Muonio), then either going down the Swedish side of the Bay of Bothnia, or going through Oulu to Vaasa and catching the ferry over to Umea - another cool university town with history.

Alternative route: take the overnight vehicle train from Kolari (on the Finnish-Swedish border, just inside the Arctic Circle) to Tampere, ride to Turku, go island-hopping via the Aland Islands to just north of Stockholm.

Check the regulations. In many places flying a drone requires government permission, making them not worth the bother.

Last time I was at Nordkapp it was mid-August, and summer was definitely over. It was +6 at the globe, and pouring rain. Oh: definitely bring a hardcore rainsuit to wear over your gear.

It always averages out to a hundred euros a day. Always. :)

At 56 I wish I was a Millennial. I’m criticised by my family for my map collection, as I like detailed maps I usually buy Michelin paper maps for planning.

The idea of easily picking spots along the way at suitable spacing seems an eminently sensible. It might be only 200 mile intervals in Norway and 450 in Germany.

A bit like the “what to pack” threads, everyone is different and I’m grateful for hints and tips.

Thanks

AnTyx, the only places I’ve been to in Norway is Stavanger and the enormous quarry at Jelsa, it’s a nice City.

Many thanks for the other tips, really helpful.

I tend to do a heck of a lot of planning before trips, I use Garmin mapping software to plan routes, identify all the possible interesting places to see that are not too far off the logical route, allocate time to visit them, work out possible overnight stops, blah, blah.

And then when I'm on the road I change my mind and my trip ends up looking nothing like the plan.

The main thing is to spend time researching overnight stops and interesting places you could visit—there's nothing worse than finding out there was a fabulous place you could have seen which was only five minutes off your route.

Have a very, very rough idea of what your trip might look like and then only plan in detail one or two days ahead, then it can change with weather conditions, how you feel, etc. I once planned to stop in one place two nights and ended up staying for eleven. So much for my plans!

This is something I've always wrestled with, even after 10 years of doing big trips.

A lot are happy to just go with the flow on big trips, but if you're someone who likes to have a sense of what they're doing/going then think about fundamentals here and put in place a bit of a structure or system around that, with the caveat of not being too rigid and being willing to drop or change plans in response to circumstances. I think the trick is to have a framework around which plans can adapt and flex to circumstances, as you've suggested.

Couple of thoughts:

- Build some slack into your milage assumptions, unless it's more a liaison route where you just need to get somewhere and you're prepared to stick to it - i.e. if you think you'll be happy riding 300 miles a day, plan for 200 or 250 miles.

- Don't underestimate how roaming adds to your miles - my odometer clocked 40,000 miles for riding from London to Sydney, but whenever I've tried to replicate my route on Google Maps I struggled to break 25,000 miles.....

Hope that helps.

As has been mentioned...research your trip, particularly for sites to see along the way.

I overland in a Defender 90 and I plan 250-300km a day. This allows for bad roads, site seeing, border crossing, and any surprises that may crop up.

It also allows me to be in camp by mid to late afternoon with plenty of daylight hours to setup, explore the site, relax with favourite tipple, and think about dinner. Also, for those days when I have to push it to 400-500km then Im physically able to do it. Doing long distances day after day is very much in the past for me.